The Taipei District Court today agreed to extend the detention of Taiwan People's Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on suspicion of accepting bribes from real-estate developers during his tenure as Taipei mayor.
The court said the decision came amid fears over possible collusion in falsifying testimony that would undermine the efforts of prosecutors to investigate the case.
Photo: Chen Tsai-ling, Taipei Times
Prosecutors suspect that Ko contravened the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) by accepting bribes from real-estate developers and using his supervisory role to benefit others during his second term as Taipei mayor from 2018 to 2022.
Ko has been detained and held incommunicado since Sept. 5 before prosecutors sought to extend his detention for another two months.
A court hearing on the extension was originally scheduled for yesterday, but it was rescheduled for today due to Typhoon Kong-rey.
The prosecutors' success in extending Ko's detention came as no surprise, as the Taipei District Court earlier this week approved prosecutors' requests to extend the detention of other major suspects in the case.
They include Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京), chairman of the Core Pacific Group, which is in charge of the controversial Core Pacific City redevelopment project, and Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇).
Prosecutors have alleged Sheen paid bribes of NT$47.4 million (US$1.48 million) to sway city government officials to abnormally increase the floor area ratio (FAR) — the amount of floor space a developer can build on a given plot of land — for a project Sheen was involved in.
Sheen was redeveloping the site formerly occupied by the Core Pacific City shopping mall in Songshan District (松山), and increasing the FAR would mean Sheen could sell more space in the project.
Ying has been believed to have acted as a go-between between Sheen and high-ranking officials, including Ko, and then-deputy Taipei mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲), who the court has also ordered detained for the second time.
The TPP has argued the allegations against Ko are a politically motivated prosecution by the the Democratic Progressive Party government.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
MORE NEEDED: Recall drives against legislators in Miaoli’s two districts and Hsinchu’s second district were still a few thousand signatures short of the second-stage threshold Campaigners aiming to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday said they expect success in 30 out of 35 districts where drives have passed the second-stage threshold, which would mark a record number of recall votes held at once. Hsinchu County recall campaigners yesterday announced that they reached the second-stage threshold in the recall effort against Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘). A total of 26,414 signatures have been gathered over the past two months, surpassing the 10 percent threshold of 23,287 in Hsinchu County’s second electoral district, chief campaigner Hsieh Ting-ting (謝婷婷) said. “Our target is to gather an additional 1,500 signatures to reach